The present invention is directed to a switch for coupling and uncoupling a pair of glass waveguides whose ends are disposed in alignment with one another while in their coupled condition.
A switch for coupling and uncoupling a pair of waveguides whose ends are aligned with one another in the coupled condition is disclosed in German OS No. 28 10 858. In this switch, a movable light waveguide is secured to a transversely deflectable switch tongue and a stationary waveguide of the switch is held in a fixed carrier part of the switch. The switch tongue extends in a longitudinal direction of the end of the movable light waveguide. The end of the light waveguide is moved back and forth between the two switch positions by means of bending the switch tongue. Thereby, a fictitious bending axis is perpendicular to the end of the light waveguide. Thus, the switch tongue is tilted relative to the fixed light waveguide end during a bending of the tongue. As a result, it is difficult if not impossible to bring the end section of the movable light waveguide end into a precise, bend-free alignment with the end of the fixed light waveguide. The buckling of the fiber axis already effects a coupling attenuation even given a high degree of positional coincidence of the end faces of the light waveguides. Tilting, however, also complicates the precise centering of the end faces of the fibers relative to one another.